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Washington, DC - Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia announces the introduction of legislation that would establish a comprehensive plan to deal with the Gulf Coast's environmental disaster in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A bewildering variety of hazardous materials were released into the environment, including such harmful chemicals as mercury, arsenic, chloroacetic acid, E. coli bacteria and over than 7 million gallons of oil.
"There needs to be a plan, a transparent, overall plan to deal with cleaning up the toxic hazards. The EPA has yet to provide one." This bill instructs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a Comprehensive Environmental Sampling and Toxicity Assessment Plan (CESTAP) to sample air, water, soil and human populations to determine the nature of threat or threats to public health, and to follow this up with an aggressive public information campaign to ensure that residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are completely aware of the threats they are facing.
"What this bill seeks to avoid," said McKinney, "is a repeat of 9/11, when the public health and safety agencies of the government failed to inform rescue and clean-up workers of the risk from toxic debris. Had workers been instructed to wear their respirators, hundreds or workers might have been spared illnesses leading to disabilities. Unless the dangers are identified and Gulf Coast residents are informed of the risks, we face an even greater catastrophe."
The bill also includes language directing the EPA to establish standards, including identifying different zones according to toxic threat level, and stresses the need to inform responders and clean-up crews of the risks, and to provide them with safety equipment. |
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